Uh – oh. From Todd McCarthy, Reuters: “Negotiating a consistent artistic path as steadily as a drunk walking a straight line, “This Must Be the Place” is all over the place dramatically, tonally and thematically.”
The reactions to Paolo Sorrentino’s first English language film, “This Must Be The Place” are actually mixed. Starring Sean Penn and Frances McDormand, it’s the story of an immature rock star who travels from Dublin to New York to hunt down a Nazi and avenge a family wrong. Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian wrote, “This Must Be the Place – starring Sean Penn as Cheyenne, a retired goth rocker living in Dublin – has superbly elegant and distinctive forms: looming camera movements, bursts of pop, deadpan comedy, quasi-hallucinatory perspective lines in landscapes in which singular figures look vulnerably isolated,” and then said that there was a lot to enjoy in the movie.
But Xan Brooks, also from the Guardian said. “Hopes were high for Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be The Place” but it’s slipshod and gaudy, topped off by a Sean Penn performance that is brave and exasperating in equal measure. He stars as Cheyenne, a fussy old Goth rocker who goes flouncing off across America on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. Sorrentino’s exotic folly is not without interest, although its self-indulgence sets my teeth on edge. It’s a turkey that dreamed it was a peacock.”
Also from Todd McCarthy, Reuters: “Eccentric, misguided and occasionally charming and sweet, this curiosity item with Sean Penn in one of his nuttier performances is unlikely to be embraced critically or commercially.”
Well Todd, I’ve never let a reviewer stop me from enjoying a movie and I’m not going to start now. Other reviews talk about creative locations in New York and Dublin and praise Sorrentino for inventiveness and though this one may not be the summer blockbuster, I’m still looking forward to an original movie with great performances.
Some reviews seemed to feel uncomfortable with what appears to be perceived as an oxymoron – the goofy rock star dealing with the seriousness of a search for a nazi war criminal. When I get my hands on “This Must Be The Place” – I’ll be the judge of that.
I Love Italian Everything 